The present invention generally relates to surgical accessories and more particularly to a device that would allow support of an extremity during surgical and debridement procedures by medical personnel. More specifically, the present invention relates to an extremity surgical support debridement platform used to facilitate the process of debridement and lavage of injured extremities.
Surgical accessories adopted to allow medical personnel to perform medical treatment on a patient or a portion of a patient while collecting waste fluid or the like generated from such treatment are known. The most common type being a simple basin or towel. Other more complicated and expensive accessories are also known as discussed below.
U.S. Pat. No. 561,514 shows a bandaging table with a single liquid permeable surface containing several cutouts which receive medical instruments or other items required during the bandaging procedure.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,609,261 shows a collapsible limb support which includes a screen surface with access to a drip pan.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,945,731 shows a surgical drainage attachment for use with a standard operating table. This attachment comprises of a basin with a screen on top thereof for support of the hand or foot of a patient.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,328,024 shows a drainage tray more or less permanently attached to a standard operating table having an upper screen surface and a lower drain opening.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,257 shows a surgery table for use on a hand and includes a downwardly sloped upper operating surface with multiple drain holes positioned above a drain pan which includes a hose for removal of liquid wastes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,214 shows a high rectangular pan with multiple operating surfaces formed by moveable grids over a drip pan with a padded cutout for the patient's extremity.
It is always recommended to debride and wash out traumatic wounds and infections or to irrigate elective surgical sites of either the upper or lower extremities in either the operating room or the emergency room. This process always includes the use of saline irrigation in amounts that may vary from a few milliliters to several liters. The prior art does not disclosed a dedicated device into which the fluid can drain while the limb is uniformly supported as this debridement and lavage process takes place. The result is that this fluid frequently will pool on the operating room table or floor adding both a contamination risk and a fall hazard to the surgical environment. The alternative technique that is employed is to use receptacles that are not dedicated to this process but which are commonly available in the surgical or emergency room suites. These often include ring or emesis basins and even bed pans. The limbs are not uniformly supported so that fractures and injured soft tissues undergo further trauma. Alternatively, hospitals may customize steel pans by placing a drain at one end or on the bottom and may also create a grid to go over the pan. These devices are often of insufficient length and/or too deep and prove to be cumbersome with the extremity having to be continually moved on and off the grid between the debridement and lavage components, thereby adding trauma to the tissues. The drains get clogged with tissue. These then have to be cleaned out and the suction re-attached all of which add delay to the procedure.
The disadvantages of the prior art are that they are cumbersome in size, not light in weight and not readily portable. They are not easily stackable for storage purposes and could not easily be included in pre-packaged sterile operating room or military-like field packs. Several require attachment to the operating room table or are too high to allow limb placement on the working surface without significant anatomical distortion of the extremity. Vascular and neural elements within the injured extremity can become kinked or torn as a result of these deformities. Several have high-riding side walls that will impede visualization and surgical access to the extremity during a procedure. The use of a fully circular hole or nozzle in the bottom or the sidewall for introduction or attachment of a drain hose in some makes insertion and removal difficult. Nozzles designed for drain hose attachment become easily clogged with tissue because of their narrow bore and frequently need to be cleared. The complicated nature of the prior art also lends to an increased expense for manufacturing.
Therefore, it is desirable for a medical device to facilitate the process of debridement and lavage of injured extremities that is easy to manipulate by a user, lightweight, portable, stackable, detached, durable, permits clear visualization of extremities, disposable and inexpensive to manufacture.